It is often advantaqeous to engage a knife or other tool in a sheath in a way that prevents the tool from slipping from the sheath. One solution for this problem has been to tie the tool to the sheath with a strap or snap device. However, it is difficult to retrieve such a tied down tool quickly, especially under adverse conditions such as in an underwater environment.
Other devices have used specially adapted tool handles and coil spring loaded locking buttons, with a variety of parts mounted in the sheaths to engage the tool handles. A variety of such tool and sheath locking combinations relating particularly to knives are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,404,747, 4,854,044 and 4,856,192. Although these devices are adequate to retain a tool in a sheath, they are costly to manufacture and assemble and may also jam or deteriorate under adverse environmental conditions. These previous devices also frequently involve very specifically shaped features on the tools. Additionally, unsheathing operations utilizing the systems of these prior disclosures are still somewhat slower to unsheath than optimally desired since the user must press a relatively small location on the sheath while simultaneously pulling upon the tool handle.